Below are recent news stories about the Newtown Action Alliance and its activities. We join together to bring an end to the growing epidemic of gun violence in this country.

In March, we sent the following open letter to Edward Stack, the CEO of Dick's Sporting Goods for his bold leadership in the retail sector to end gun violence in America. On May 3rd, we learned that Dick's Sporting Goods has retained Glover Park Group to lobby congress on gun reform. Please add your name to this thank you letter to Mr Stack. This letter has been signed by the families and survivors impacted by gun violence but we would like to send them more gratitude for his leadership. We hope other CEOs will follow his lead.

A new coalition of celebrities and activists, including actor Alyssa Milano and Parkland student David Hogg, announced plans Friday to take on the National Rifle Association and elected officials who accept money from the powerful gun advocacy group.

Eric Milgram doesn’t exactly have the typical résumé for a gun-control activist. Like millions of Americans, he grew up around firearms. He received his first shotgun at the age of 13. As a young man, he owned eight guns and was a member of the National Rifle Association. After moving to Newtown, Conn., in 2010, he set up a target behind his house and tried to teach his children to shoot. He was even contemplating buying an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle.

Hundreds of thousands of students and parents from Newtown, Conn., to Columbine, Colo., descended on Washington or participated in sister rallies across the United States on Saturday to condemn the scourge of gun violence and call on lawmakers for substantive change

Lauren Milgram was six years old when she survived the Sandy Hook massacre. She was saved when her teacher hid her and 15 other students in a tiny bathroom. Lauren and her 15-year-old brother, a fellow survivor, marched in DC on Saturday. They joined 400 people from Newtown, including many Sandy Hook survivors

Until recently, advocates for gun control hadn’t realized what their movement was missing: fearless, outraged teen-agers. On Saturday morning, in Washington, D.C., students and parents gathered to protest the lenient gun laws that allow for endless mass shootings in America. Many had orange price tags dangling from their wrists: $1.05, the amount the National Rifle Association donated to the Republican senator Marco Rubio, divided by the number of students in Florida, the state he represents. A massive sound system broadcast pop songs: Kesha’s “Tik Tok,” Britney Spears’s “Toxic,” the Killers’ “Mr. Brightside.” The mood was celebratory, but determined.

s Emma Gonzalez, the teenage activist from Parkland, Fla., stood in rigid silence on stage before hundreds of thousands of people in Washington, D.C., on Saturday afternoon, another survivor of a school massacre began to squirm.

After the latest mass shooting incident that killed 17 students and teachers at Parkland Florida's Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on Feb. 14, expectations were that interest in yet another tragic story of gun violence would soon fade from the headlines. But something is different this time. Student survivors of the Parkland massacre refused to let their grief and trauma stop them from speaking out and becoming active in the campaign to rein in gun violence.

In the wake of the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., where 17 students and faculty members were killed on February 14, Newtown Action Alliance (NAA) led a community meeting at Edmond Town Hall on Wednesday, February 21, to discuss ways they can take a stand against gun violence in America.

Inland Regional Center executive director Lavinia Johnson’s eyes beamed as she talks about the outpouring of support from the public, but there were times during a recent hourlong discussion when she became a bit reserved.

I was 19 the first time I held an assault rifle. It was on a concrete court inside a National Guard armory in Bloomington, Ind., where I’d gathered with fellow R.O.T.C. cadets for weapons training. A sergeant opened an olive-drab arms case and handed out M-16A2s. We each took one apart and reassembled it, learning the sequence, learning how to safely clear it, learning to check its functions. It has been years since I held one, but regardless of the model — an M-16, an M-4 or a civilian variant like the AR-15 or Sig Sauer MCX — I’m confident I could disassemble it blindfolded.

Members of the gun-control group, Newtown Action Alliance held a vigil at the National Shooting Sports Foundation headquarters in Newtown Sunday night. The organization is the firearms industry's trade association.

The Obama administration has announced new actions to curb gun violence in the United States. On Friday, the President outlined a strategy pushing “smart gun” technology. Eric Milgram, father of two Newtown survivors, joins MSNBC’s Ayman Mohelydin to share his opinion on the “smart gun” push.

Today it is one of the most powerful and influential entities in Washington, D.C. Its CEO and Executive Vice President, Wayne LaPierre, has become the poster child and figurehead of the pro-gun movement in the post- Sandy Hook era. As a gun owner and proud supporter of the second amendment, I will freely tell you that Wayne LaPierre and the NRA do not speak for me. As a Newtown resident, I find it difficult to express the emotions brought up by the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Days before the one-year anniversary of the shooting in Sandy Hook Elementary School, the Newtown Action Alliance and supporters honor the memories of gun violence victims through acts of kindness and service around the DC metro area prior to the National Vigil for All Victims of Gun Violence at the Washington National Cathedral.

Just two weeks ago, a gunman entered a school in Georgia with an AK-47and began shooting. An Australian baseball player was senselessly murdered in Oklahoma City. Elementary schools in Colorado hold drills where five-year-old kids hunker down behind tables while an "active shooter" knocks at the door. Just this week, Colorado voters ejected in recall elections two state senators who had sponsored new gun control laws in the wake of the Aurora cinema mass shooting. And the grim parade of gun violence in our cities marches on.

The group is planning on visiting Congress, to deliver a letter with a message demanding “background checks and other common-sense measures to prevent gun violence,” according to its website. Members of NAA and other advocates from across the country are planning to meet with Democratic and Republican congressional leaders during the visit, delivering letters and lists of gun violence victims since 12/14.

For Sheryl Wiser, it was one year ago, May 30, that gun violence shook her life. Though the event was national news, she never heard from her family. They never realized how close she was to the Seattle Café Shooting. It has taken her nearly that long to tell them about her experience in an e-mail she felt compelled to share with Newtown Action Alliance. Before the massacre of 20 children and six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in our community of Newtown, Connecticut, we felt relatively safe from gun violence. That day woke us up to take action for smarter, safer gun laws because we realized that if such horrific violence can happen here, in Newtown, it can happen anywhere.

On behalf of the Newtown Action Alliance and our partners, we are furious that the will of nearly 90% of Americans who support common sense changes that do not infringe on anyone’s rights, was ignored outright by Senators in Washington who cower in fear of losing their favorable NRA ratings. We are ashamed that our democratic process is so corrupted and dysfunctional, and that once again, gun industry profits have won out over commonsense safety measures.

Thanks to all for the tremendous turnout and success of the Lecture on the 2nd Amendment by Dr. Saul Cornell. We are working to post the materials and playback. Here are some of the responses we've received. Here are a few responses from our recent guest speaker.

There she stood, with 14 of her classmates and her teacher, all of them crying. You see, she heard what was happening on the other side of the wall. She heard everything. Shooting. Screaming. Pleading. She was sure she was going to die that day and did not want to die for Christmas.

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